Flower Count belongs in February
I don’t understand why the Flower Count keeps getting later and later in the year. When it started in the 1970s, it used to be held in early February (start dates based on the Times Colonist archive: Feb. 2, 1978, and Feb. 8, 1979). In the 1980s and 1990s, it moved to a mid-February start (for example, Feb. 16, 1997).
The past few years the Flower Count has been held in March. That seems to defeat the whole purpose of holding the count when the rest of the country is buried in snow. It’s been up around 20 C in parts of southern Ontario and Quebec the past few days, and my relatives there are already posting photos of crocuses.
With our gradually warming climate, the count should be getting earlier, not later. We should move it back to early February, when there are typically still lots of blooms in Victoria, including plum and cherry trees, snowdrops, crocuses, rhodos, heather, early daffodils, etc. There may not be quite as many blooms as you would count in March, but it would have much more impressive to our fellow citizens east of the Rockies.
Steven Murray
Victoria
Flower Count has run its course
Why does Victoria insist on taunting the rest of the country with the inane practice of the Flower Count? Calling it a winter tradition is no excuse. Isn’t there enough overpopulation here in Victoria as it is? How many more high-rises are you intending to build? Besides, with climate change, it’s twice as warm in Toronto today as it is here.
It’s time to put the blossom count to rest. It was quaint while it lasted, OK?
Peter Anders
Victoria
The dangers of ‘woke’ ideology
Re: “Police chief and school board remain at loggerheads on officers in schools,” column, March 5.
Call the phenomenon what you will — “woke” seems to be the pejorative in general use — far-left ideology is at the root of many social problems, in British Columbia, across Canada and North America, Britain and Europe.
On any day, a hundred podcasts discuss the threat to Western civilization posed by this power struggle. In my opinion, with good cause.
The movement has abandoned reason in favour of dogma and preordained outcomes, namely the deconstruction of existing “narratives,” institutions and governing bodies.
The evidence — in our schools and universities, governments, and on the streets — indicates this corrosive ideology is achieving its ends.
No surprise then that police, to whom it most often falls to deal with social collapse on the ground, are stymied by activists from protecting vulnerable citizens, including young students.
Hidebound Ideologues are not so much interested in visible evidence as they are in protecting the doctrinal purity of theories that have infiltrated academia and governments on every level. Witness the madness in municipal meetings, where foreign conflicts take precedence over local ordinance.
All that matters to these agitators is that any representation of the existing order — deemed “oppressive” in wokespeak — is named and shamed.
For five decades I voted left and still identify as liberal. Today, particularly since last October, I’m politically homeless.
What I think the new, purified left is missing — due to their blinkered view — is that, as the ’60s poet Bob Dylan predicted at the end of the 1970s, “a slow train is coming.” Because people trying to live through this unmoored-from-reality-social-experiment have had enough.
Raymond Parker
Sooke
Are liaison officers needed? Ask a student
It’s hard to believe how long this concern regarding police liaison officers in schools has been going on.
Dealing with undesirables in the schools is not new. I have vivid memories of having to connect with police liaison officers as far back as the mid-1970s at one of the local high schools where I taught and was an administrator. Working with the officer assigned to our school ended a number of issues that could have had negative effects on the well-being of our students. The gang scenario for our schools now is a nasty progression over the years.
To delay the potential of bringing back police liaison officers because “research” still needs to be done is so frustrating. A quick, simple and effective way to “research” is to survey the students. They will tell you what is going on in our schools. I have done my own “research” asking students who I know what they see going on that they know is potentially harmful. I got an earful. Perhaps our school board could try something similar.
If they do, I’m confident they will quickly learn why Del Manak is so outspoken on the issue. Maybe then, police liaison officers could return and support what needs to be done, and done quickly.
Dave Hockley
Victoria
Liaison officer made a difference
This is a letter to say thank you to the wonderful school liaison officer our children had at Esquimalt High School, the very caring, professional, involved, approachable Tom Woods. He was there for everyone, even at the grad dinner/dances, even well turned out in a tux. To this day Tom Woods is an outstanding pillar in the community of Esquimalt and was always involved. He cares.
To the School District 61 board who dispute the idea of school liaison officers, shame on you for not giving all students and parents of School District 61 the safety, security, caring, professional, involved and approachable school liaison officers they deserve. We all want the best for all students, including your children and grandchildren.
Suzanne Lim
Colwood
An interminable wait for care
I am 80 years old, and I am lucky to have lived through the dreadful experience of visiting three Victoria emergency rooms (two by ambulance) in the span of 36 hours.
Emergency means emergency. During my 14-hour wait in the ER of Victoria General (and additional 10-hour wait for results of a CT scan) I saw several people vomiting uncontrollably, people lying on the floor in pain, people screaming and banging walls in the bathroom, people crying, and people, like myself, holding their heads in excruciating pain, enduring the endless wait.
I asked for Tylenol to help my pain but the desk clerk told me he was too busy to deal with me. I imagine, many of those waiting for help went on to receive some. Several just left.
For me it was 36 hours of progressive pain, swelling, confusion, inability to talk or swallow, and eventually to breathe, visits to two more hospitals by ambulance, and finally some blessed relief through the actions of a team of doctors who treated me for allergy even though I had no outward physical signs of it.
I have read about our broken health care system, and now I’ve had a chance to experience it for myself. I stayed in hospital for five days and received excellent care, but what is the good of a health-care system where one can’t gain access to it?
Karen Adam
Saanich
Long-term care costs not all the same
A recent letter commented on “the outrageous rents that retirement homes are charging seniors.” My mother was in long-term care and I beg to differ. For publicly funded care, clients are charged 80 per cent of their after-tax income to a maximum of $3,974 per month (in 2024).
For many people who do not have savings and rely on their pension income only, this may indeed be a steep cost with little left for the necessities of living. For people like my mother who had ample savings, the maximum amount seemed low. I know of very wealthy people living in publicly funded care who could easily bear a higher monthly expense. This might then result in people with lower incomes paying a lower percentage of their after-tax incomes and having money left over for things such as dental care, glasses and clothing.
Alanna Wrean
Victoria
More high-risk activities than just sports
Re: “High-risk athletes should pay more,” letter, March 5.
The letter-writer argued that individuals who choose to participate in high-risk sports should pay more for health care. The writer expressed frustration that individuals who require other forms of immediate medical attention are bumped by “countless athletes.”
At the foundation of this reasoning, the writer is stating that those individuals who willingly partake in high-risk activities should pay more for health care. OK sure, let’s do this, but why arbitrarily stop at sports? Let’s look at all the activities people willingly partake in that result in a high number of hospital visits: smoking, drinking, drug use, obesity from indolence and overindulgence, and the list goes on.
Is the writer willing to charge all these people extra as well? How many expensive ambulance trips are made every day in Victoria to deal with a drug overdose? How many heart attacks are the result of people too lazy to get off the chesterfield and go for a walk?
When one considers all these other high-risk pursuits, one will find that the number of athletes clogging up the health-care system is quite small in comparison. Athletes choose to partake in sport for their health, for the wonderful feelings that result from activity, to connect with nature, and to connect with other like-minded individuals. Injuries are an unfortunate side effect if they happen, but the benefits are beyond measure. This is more than I can say about the payoff of other high-risk pursuits.
Christoph Dettling
Victoria
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